2019 Volume 57 Issue 1 Pages 1-11
Effective treatments, both in education and in nursing, are needed for children with profound motor and intellectual disabilities. The participant in the present study was a child with profound motor and intellectual disabilities resulting from an instance of cerebral ischemia-anoxia in his early childhood, who needed concentrated medical care. A responsive environment, using an iPad as an audio-visual device, was prepared during educative lessons at his home. For example, touching the screen triggered the sound of a human voice, an animal's call, or the sound of a musical instrument. Movements of one of the fıngers on his left hand, heart rate, and cerebral blood flow in the frontal area were measured when these sounds were made. Measurements were made 7 times during a 13-month period from when he was 11 to 12 years of age. To bring the iPad closer to his left thumb, fınger movements, including especially movements of his left thumb, occurred more frequently. Furthermore, during the iPad activity, his heart rate decreased prior to presentation of the sound, which may suggest that he anticipated the sound, and the oxy-hemoglobin in the cerebral blood flow in the frontal area increased, which may related to cognitive processing, including stimulus evaluation, response selection, or decisionmaking. It appeared that he might have been trying to touch the screen of the iPad in relation to cues in the surrounding environment.
